Petrol likely to go up by Re 1 from Jan 1

State-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) are likely to hike petrol prices by Re 1 from New Year i.e. January 1st as proposal has been sent to the government for the approval.

OMCs such as BPCL, HPCL and IOC review the international crude price and the exchange rate once in fortnight i.e. on 1st and 16th of every month. The companies kept prices unchanged during last review which happened on December 16th due to RBI's intervention in currency market, which did not had any major impact.

At present, international crude oil prices are almost stable in the range of $107 - $108 per barrel, but rupee has depreciated to the level of Rs 52 / Rs 53 per dollar, which has raised up the import costs for the OMCs.

OMCs are currently incurring under-recovery of about 85 paise per litre on the sale of petrol, so after adding local sales tax, the overall increase in retail prices would come out to be Rs 1.02 per litre.

OMCs reduced petrol prices twice in the month of November by Rs 2.22 per litre and 78 paise per litre, due to dip in international crude prices.